The win remains special to Vickers for many reasons, but perhaps none bigger than that it represented a successful career comeback after blood clots sidelined him in 2010 (blood clots also ended his 2013 campaign early but he returned in time for this season).

“The biggest thing was, you know, kind of in Victory Lane reflecting back to a couple years earlier when I was sitting in a hospital not sure if I’d ever race again, being told there was a good chance that would never happen again,” Vickers remembered in today’s NASCAR teleconference.

“Through the support of so many friends and family and people like Michael to give me a chance, Toyota helping me and supporting me through the process, a good team behind me, [they] got me back in into a car and got me not only back into the Sprint Cup Series but got me back into Victory Lane.

“That’s probably the biggest lingering memory from the win and why it means so much.”

Another win at New Hampshire in Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 would also mean a lot to Vickers, who is battling to get into this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He currently sits beyond the Top 16 cutoff point but remains in the picture at 10 points behind Austin Dillon, the current holder of the 16th and final position on the Chase Grid (Greg Biffle is the closest to Dillon at four points back).

As we all know, a regular season victory effectively puts you into the post-season and Vickers almost punched his ticket last Sunday in a rainy Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. But in the end, NASCAR decided to call the race with Aric Almirola taking the win and Vickers having to do with second.

That didn’t sit well with Vickers, who said on Sunday he was “shocked” that NASCAR ended the race early at Daytona. Today, while admitting that there are certain factors to consider with each track, Vickers said that more formal guidelines should be put in place regarding rain-affected races.

“Obviously, some tracks have lights like Daytona so you can race well into the night and some tracks don’t have lights,” he said. “Some tracks have noise curfews, when you can start, when you have to stop a race, or there’s penalties.

“But I think having some guidelines in place to say, ‘Listen, at this track on a Sunday we will race until this time, on a Monday we’ll race until this time.’ Just kind of knowing that going in because you may make different decisions.”